History When world war II ended in 1945 parts for more 100 V-2 missiles were
shipped from Germany to USA. Along with the rocket parts, Wernher vonBraun, Walter Dornberger
and 124 other scientists and technicians from the V-2 production,
were in American hands.

White Sands
Proving Ground. in New Mexico became the center of the US experiments with
the V-2. Since the rockets were launched
without warheads, there were plenty of space for scientific use of the
rockets. So the V-2 ended up as a sounding rocket.

V-2 no. 3 was
launched on May 10, 1946 and were the second V-2 launched from
White Sands (No. 1 was only used for a static test).

Like the first V-2
launched by vonBraun
in Germany, the rocket was decorated with a
pin-up girl.

The V-2 carried
different scientific instruments. The flight was a success,
but the scientific payload was more or less destroyed at the impact with
the ground. The V-2 were after all not designed as a sounding rocket.

Later the scientist managed way to recover the data from the experiments,
and about 70 V-2's were launched in the US. The last one launched
19 September, 1952